BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association
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The Yukon government has proposed amendments to parts the Traffic Safety Act that deal with facial recognition software.
The amendments are based off of suggestions from the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.
Section 215 of the bill deals with the use of facial recognition software. In a motion made on Oct. 15, the Yukon Party asked the government to remove it from the bill completely. The territory’s privacy commissioner, Jason Pedlar, said his office had not been consulted on the use of facial recognition software in the bill, in an Oct. 4 letter brought up in the assembly on Oct. 10.
However, in an Oct. 17 letter tabled in the legislative assembly on Oct. 24, highways and public works deputy minister Tracy Allen detailed an Oct. 16 meeting with the deputy information and privacy commissioner. Discussions between the office and department led to a draft amendment to section 215, according to the letter.
The draft amendments include the explicit clarification that the registrar may use facial recognition software only in exercising their powers and performing their duties and functions under the Act. The amendments strike out the use of any other prescribed technology-based means of identity verification. There is also a bullet point added highlighting the purpose of the software to help prevent identity theft and fraud.
In her letter, Allen said the changes to subsection two was to limit the registrar’s use of facial recognition software to the performance of duties under the Traffic Safety Act.
The drafted amendments also specify the registrar can use facial recognition software only to compare a photo of a person to other photos already in the possession of the registry.
The original wording said the registrar may compare the photo of a person who applies for or holds a driver’s licence or identification card to other photos of the person or to the photos of the person that are contained in the registry.
Another regulation, which allowed the registrar to disclose personal information to specified persons, was struck completely.
The drafted amendments now allow the commissioner in executive council to make regulations prescribing the administrative, technical and physical safeguards the registrar must adopt to protect the confidentiality, security, accuracy and integrity of personal information obtained via facial recognition software.
Also, the amendment specifies the registrar would be able to make facial recognition software available to issuers, as defined in section 210 of the bill, as opposed to specified persons.
Issuers are defined as being “authorized by the registrar to issue a document, and either an employee of the Government of Yukon, or an agent of the registrar.”
Pedlar responded to Allen on Oct. 21. He said the revisions properly limit the scope of the registrar’s use of facial recognition technology solely to the duties laid out in the bill dealing with the changes.
He said revisions to make the technology available to issuers significantly reduced his concerns “about the potential for such highly invasive technology to be implemented outside its intended purpose.”
Altogether, Pedlar said the proposed amendments comply better with the principles of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act, which aims to protect privacy and maintain the accountability of public institutions in the Yukon.
The bill remains before the legislature.
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